NUGGETS…from the WORD of GOD
DIVINE REQUIREMENT
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul”
—Deut. 10:12
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If as New Testament believers we were asked to summarize God’s requirement fir His own, I think we would be inclined to answer in one word, “faith.” “For without faith it is impossible to please Him [Heb. 11:6].” Given that response, it is important to inquire what faith is. For many, I fear, faith is regarded as an act; “I put my faith in Christ,“ e.g. Of course anyone who has gained familiarity with the Bible knows better than that, but we too often know better than we behave.
My suggestion is that our nugget for today is indicative of the components of genuine faith, and we propose to look at it from that perspective.
The first and foremost ingredient of true faith is the fear of the Lord. Rotherham translates the word fear as “revere.” Reverence incorporates awe, wonder, profound respect. Those who “fear” the Lord are overwhelmed by His majesty and His glory. Perhaps the best illustration of it in scripture is found in Isaiah’s reaction when he “saw the Lord,” to which we have called attention on other occasions:
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple…Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts [Isa. 6:1, 5].”
Our faith may not result in the same visual experience, but it should elicit a similar spiritual reaction. In less dramatic terms a poet asked, “How big is God,” and responded, “He’s big enough to build this mighty universe, and small enough to live within my heart.” Faith generates that peculiar sense of His majesty on the one hand and His condescension on the other that which results in awe and a proper humility, “the fear of the Lord.” This is “the beginning of wisdom.” ( Ps. 111:10)
Faith incorporates not only a sense of reverence, but also a disposition to to obey Him—to “walk in all His ways.” Recall those most familiar verses in Ephesians; “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them [Eph. 2:8-10].” Faith does not rest upon good works, but it does result in them. We do not respect a God to whom we do not respond in obedience. That was Adam’s problem in the beginning, and it is what Christ came to undo.
A third component of genuine faith is love. The Savior’s penetrating question to the broken apostle Peter, after His resurrection was, “do you love me?” and when Peter responded in a tentative way, the Son of God said simply, “feed my sheep.” Obedience and love are ever linked in God’s assessment of our faith. And the apostle Paul integrated faith and love in the believer’s hope when he concluded, “Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love [I Cor. 13:13].”
Finally God said to Israel, “serve the Lord thy God.” Faith—real faith—eventuates in spiritual fruit.” The Savior said to the faithful, God with Whom our faith is engaged.
The last phrase in our text is a key to the whole. At first glance it appears to apply to service; I am convinced that it embraces the who verse. “with all thy heart and with with all thy soul.” Genuine faith is not half hearted. It reaches deep into the roots of our being and changes everything. The phrase is echoed by the Lord Jesus Christ when He was asked “Which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [Matt. 22:36-37].”
If God is real to us, as faith alone can generate, then we should revere Him, obey Him. love Him and serve Him with “all [our] heart and with all [our] soul.” Anything less undervalues our God and marks the deficiency of the “faith” we profess.
“Oh to grace, how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.” —Robinson 1758
—"Pastor" Frasier
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9/15/12
These "Nuggets," including past issues, are now available online at
http://wmf14227.blogspot.com/ - or - http://pastorfrasier.blogspot.com/ prior to 4/1/12
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